The English word 'talent' now means an ability or gift largely because of the influence of this parable. In Jesus' story, however, a talent is money—a very large monetary unit.
The master's distribution of five, two, and one talent therefore represents enormous entrusted resources rather than three employees receiving different natural abilities.
A talent was a weight and monetary unit worth thousands of ordinary daily wages, though exact purchasing-power conversions into modern currency are misleading. The first two servants put the entrusted capital to work and produce gains; the third hides his talent in the ground, a method that could protect valuables from theft but produced no return.
The master's reference to bankers and interest completes the commercial imagery. Lending at interest existed in the ancient economy, although biblical law regulated interest in particular relationships and circumstances.
Recovering the monetary meaning changes the scale of the parable. Even the servant receiving 'only one' talent has been entrusted with something extremely valuable.
The story therefore emphasizes stewardship, responsibility, and the master's expectation that what has been entrusted will be used rather than merely preserved through fearful inaction. The modern sense of personal 'talents' can be a useful application, but it is not the original meaning of the unit in the story.